On TNT's
Babylon 5 web site as reported yesterday, starting Monday
May 3, Babylon 5 will go on hiatus for a few weeks and they
are going to give you a chance to vote for the new timeslot.
You can now vote for the timeslot you would like Babylon 5
to be on! You have four choices....

Monday through Fridays 7 am ET/PT

Monday through Fridays 8 am ET/PT

Every Saturday morning

Every Sunday morning

So it's either in the morning, in the morning, in the morning or in the morning...

Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski reports that the Kitt
Peak Observatory in Tuscon, Ariz., has named an asteroid after him.
The space rock was discovered by the observatory in 1992 and has
officially been designated 8379 STRACZYNSKI.

"Suffice to say it's a tremendous honor," Straczynski
wrote in an online posting. "Finally, I'm a rock star..."

AICN has recieved the Crusade Promotional poster.
It states Crusade is a limited run series. The oddest thing is that it states that the
crew of the Excalibur are rangers... You can view the poster on our pictures page here.

AICN
also has reviews of Crusade episodes posted. (highly praising
the show) You can view the report here.

TNT WILL POLL VIEWERS FOR NEW B5 SLOT:

Here is official word from TNT as to the B5 schedule:

"Starting Monday, May 3, Babylon 5 will go on hiatus for a few
weeks. We are currently looking into alternate programming slots for
the series and would like some input from our loyal B5 fans. We will
be putting a B5 scheduling poll online very shortly; please vote for
the time slot you would like best. We will tabulate the results and
take it into consideration when we make our decision."

BABYLON 5 EPISODE NOMINATED FOR A HUGO AWARD:

Babylon 5's final episode "Sleeping in Light"
has been nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.

Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski will receive the Ray Bradbury Award for Dramatic Screenwriting, which is given by the president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The award was founded by SFWA president Ben Bova in 1992 and has only been given once, to writer/director James Cameron for his work on Terminator 2.

"The membership of SFWA voted overwhelmingly this past fall
to reinstate the Dramatic Nebula Award," SFWA president Paul
Levinson said. "But eligibility for this award, chosen by
the membership, begins with work made available to the public
on Jan. 1, 1999.

"I thought it especially appropriate, in these circumstances, to give the Bradbury Award one more time," Levinson explained. "It signals to the world SFWA's deep interest in dramatic media."

Straczynski is being honored for his work on B5, which SFWA called "one of the most imaginative and influential science fiction television shows in years." The series recently concluded its five-year run and is currently being shown in repeats on TNT.

The Bradbury will be presented to Straczynski during the Nebula Awards Ceremony, which is being held on May 1 in Pittsburgh, Pa.

I've been keeping up to date with the Babylon 5 and Crusade
news ever since it first hit the waves that Crusade may only
last 13 episodes. A day ago I read a "latast news" item which
said that Season 5 of Babylon 5 is no longer being shown on
Channel 9.

The reason for this was simple. Throughout last year Babylon 5 was
churning out some very impressive ratings figures. The Babylon 5 timeslot
was at one point occupied by Star Trek Deep Space Nine, which didn't do
nearly as well. In October Season 5 began and I gather, continued to gain
good ratings. However, over the Christmas/New Year period, which is our
(Australia's) non-rating period, Babylon 5 was not aired because ratings are
so erratic during that period.

In order for the network to take full advantage of the show's ratings
potential, the airing of the remaining episodes have been put off until now.
Brooklyn South, the show which currently occupies the Babylon 5 timelsot
aires it's season finale this week and so it is logical to assume that the
final installment of Babylon 5 will begin airing as of Thursday week.

As for Crusade, it's most likely that Channel 9 won't pick it up unless it
eventually gets guarenteed a second season. Part of this also stems from the
size of the Australian market, which is significantly smaller than the US
and most western countries. Networks over here won't take on a show that is
already known to have been experiencing production problems which threaten
the show over in the US. In dollar terms it doesn't make sense for the
channel to take on a whole series which may only aire 13 episodes.

Hope I have shed a bit of light on the Australian situation.
-- John Ponton

Currently the Nine Network is no longer showing Season
5 of Babylon 5, although the last episode show was "In The
Kingdom of The Blind". No word as to when it will recommence
showing, but it would *probably* be around 11pm on Thursday,
sometime this year. As for Crusade, it may or may not be shown
here (due to the fact it has been cancelled). -- CS7